


Dead Man Walking

by call-me-cee (cls1606)



Series: The Rest is Noise [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, CT-27-5555 | Fives | ARC-5555 is a Little Shit, CT-7567 | Rex is Trying His Best, Crack, Daddy Kink, Emotional Hurt, Humorous Ending, I Was Enabled, Inappropriate Humor, M/M, Sexual Humor, What Was I Thinking?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:07:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27868894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cls1606/pseuds/call-me-cee
Summary: It started with a relatively innocent discussion of kinks.
Relationships: CT-21-0408 | CT-1409 | Echo & CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives, CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives/CT-7567 | Rex
Series: The Rest is Noise [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2055516
Comments: 34
Kudos: 124





	Dead Man Walking

**Author's Note:**

  * For [svartalfheimr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/svartalfheimr/gifts), [TheAceApples](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAceApples/gifts), [kazhan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kazhan/gifts).



> This is crack. Complete nonsense. I blame Svar, Apples, and Kazhan, those dastardly enablers. 
> 
> This is also not beta'd. Like, at all. Read at your own risk. 
> 
> If you like Rex stories (and Maul, and clones in general, and also linguistics) come join us on the MaulRex Discord! We have dirty minds and lots of fun. https://discord.gg/Awqc2FB

It started with a relatively innocent discussion of kinks. Fives, of course, was right in the thick of it, but for the first time in Rex’s memory he actually hadn’t been the instigator. That honor fell, oddly enough, to Kix, who was regaling his brothers with the horrible experience of treating a civilian with a lust for doctors. 

“And then she just started _listing_ things!” He threw his hands in the air, horrified. “She wanted me to ‘ _tell her what worked for me and we’d go from there_ ’”. He moaned, sinking down on the bench as Jesse, Hardcase and the boys roared with laughter. “It’s not funny, it was a _warzone_.” 

“Maybe that was part of the appeal,” Jesse snorted as he attempted to actually consume his beer rather than spit it out. Kix glared but didn’t attempt to contradict him. 

“Wait, so…what kind of things did she list?” Fives asked once the chuckles had subsided. 

Echo and Rex both groaned. “No,” Rex said firmly, subtly nudging Fives with his thigh. 

“Actually, I’d like to know too,” Tup popped up from his beer at the far end of the table. Rex would bet his entire black market credit stash that Tup’s current drink wasn’t his first. This is what happened when Rex stayed behind to finish paperwork. At least Fives had saved him a spot, placing his bucket in the seat next to him while the guys ordered the first round so Rex didn’t have to find an extra chair or squeeze in awkwardly when he arrived. Echo had smirked at him as he grabbed Fives’ bucket and sat. Rex was relatively certain he had maintained his poker face, but Echo was an observant bastard. 

Kit was spouting off the strangest collection of words Rex had ever heard. “…dom, pet, daddy, and doctor of course-”

“Daddy?” Echo looked mentally constipated. Rex sympathized. 

“Yeah, I guess it’s a power play kind of thing,” Kix explained. All eyes shifted back to him. “What?…So I did some research!” 

“I’ll bet you did,” Tup muttered, nodding into his drink, and if he hadn’t been such a shiny Rex was absolutely certain Kix would’ve taken him back to base to get all of his booster shots at one time. In the same spot. Without numbing. As it was Jesse barely held Kix in his seat, although that may have had less to do with Tup’s shininess than a combination of Jesse’s inebriation and uncontrolled giggling prompting Kix to keep him from falling on the floor. 

“I don’t get it,” Echo continued. “Do you?” He looked at Fives, who shrugged. 

“Maybe ‘cause we don’t have daddies?” Hardcase asked. 

After a moment of thoughtful silence, Fives drew in a breath. Later, Rex blamed the late hour and the 2 days without real sleep for his poor reflexes. He should’ve clapped his hand over Fives’ mouth or stuffed his head into his bucket. It would’ve saved them both a lot of embarrassment. But at the time, he had allowed himself to be lulled into a false sense of security there at the bar with his men. He should’ve known better.

“I mean, we don’t have daddies, but we do have officers.” 

Cody had once explained to Rex that battles felt almost sluggish to him. He felt his breathing slow and his mind focus, and he was able to watch and think and make decisions almost as if he was seeing it from the outside or in a sim. Rex had never quite understood what he meant; for Rex, skirmishes were mostly loud, messy and over almost in the blink of an eye. 

He got it now. 

Rex looked on in mute horror as comprehension dawned on each of his men’s faces. He tried to form words as they all turned toward him, but oddly enough the synapses to his mouth didn’t seem to be working, as all he managed was to silently open and close his mouth like a fish. 

Fives shifted, nonchalantly placing his elbow on the table and resting his head on his hand as he turned to face Rex. He couldn’t quite keep the shit-eating grin off his face, though, as he said, “Well, Daddy? Does this mean the next round’s on you?”

* * *

It should’ve ended there (Rex actually did end up buying that round, just to get everyone to shut the hell up), but - like all situations involving Fives - it escalated. Not too badly at first. The guys enjoyed teasing him during downtime by calling him “Daddy” instead of Captain, but they never brought it up outside of Torrent and Rex usually just brushed them off with an eyeroll. But pretty soon Rex noticed that Fives was the only one still doing it. He would say it when they were on duty and not in front of the others. Then he let it slip teasingly during an ARC briefing (Echo elbowed him hard enough to bruise that time). Then in front of the boys in the hangar bay after they evac’d back to the Resolute (he saw several of the men exchange looks out of the corner of his eye, but everyone’s buckets were on so no one could see him blush as he ignored it). Finally, it got bad enough that Rex did something he never previously envisioned - he snapped “Enough!” and proceeded to vent his embarrassment by giving Fives a public dressing-down on regulations that left the bay completely silent and Fives trembling at attention. 

Even as he strode away Rex felt his anger dissipate and guilt rushed in to fill the void. But it was too late to do anything about it. He didn’t write Fives up or make him do any KP or latrine duty, but after that day he couldn’t look him in the eye. Nor did he go to any more nights out with the boys. He felt their wary stares when he came into a room, saw them jump to attention and refuse to address him by anything other than his rank, and suddenly he felt _other_ in a way he never had. Was this what Cody felt like all the time? Fox? Bly? 

He wanted to fix it, but honestly there wasn’t anything _to_ fix. Fives had been wrong. On flimsy, at least. He’d gotten way too familiar and it was starting to affect their professionalism. Right? Now things were back to normal. Fives was fine. Sure, a bit quieter than before, but well within the bounds of normal behavior. (Rex refused to acknowledge the time he’d stumbled across Fives and Echo just outside the barracks on his way back to his bunk late at night. Echo had been crouched down with his arm around Fives, who was slumped against the wall and…hiccuping? Rex had crept closer, concerned that Fives was hiding an injury, but Echo didn’t seem to be trying to get him to medical. Rex had bitten his lip, unsure, but turned away and trusted Echo to notify Kix if Fives truly needed medical attention.) Fives was an excellent ARC trooper and so was Echo (although the recent coolness of his demeanor was starting to affect unit performance, he’d have to talk to Echo about it…sometime), and their and the rest of the 501st’s professionalism was a credit to the GAR. Rex was very proud. 

And lonely. 

* * *

It probably would’ve stayed like that forever, except that _of course_ the 501st got called up to the hottest part of a fight, and _of course_ General Skywalker decided to chase Ventress into an abandoned spice mine at the edge of the battlefield, and _of course_ the mine collapsed as the two Force-users battled it out underground. Rex ordered a tactical retreat but there’s only so much speed a company can manage when it’s basically single-file, and the last thing he remembered before the ceiling collapsed was hearing a desperate cry of “Rex!” and being shoved out of the way of a crumbling support strut. 

When he awoke, he was horrified to see the exit completely blocked by rubble. He sat up slowly, silently doing a systems check to make sure nothing was broken or swelling before turning to survey his surroundings. 

Fives lay not 10 feet away, half-buried in debris. Rex felt his heart stop. 

He scrambled over to the ARC trooper and frantically dug him out of the rocks. Fives’ bucket had been badly dented, and Rex wasn’t even sure he’d be able to get it off, but once he had Fives laid out in the small clearing (his arm was bent at such an awkward angle, oh little gods) he slowly pried it from Fives’ body. As he did so, Fives revived, his eyes fluttering. “‘ey Cap’n,” he slurred, trying to focus. 

Rex tossed the ruined helmet to the side and turned on his own helmet light, checking Fives’ eyes. “Hey, trooper. That was really stupid, shoving me. You’re lucky you’ve got such a hard head.” Fuck. Fives’ left pupil was completely blown and there was blood filling his eye. Rex called over the radio and made some type of connection, but the static was so bad his radio might as well have been useless. He cursed, one of the more colorful ones Cody and Bly had taught him as a cadet. Normally that would’ve gotten him some type of response from Fives, but as Rex looked down in surprise and then alarm he saw that Fives’ eyes had rolled up in his head and he was incredibly pale. 

“Oh, no. No no no no no,” Rex chanted, grasping the back of Fives’ head with one hand and slapping his cheek with the other. “You stay awake, trooper. You stay awake. Fives? Fives!” 

Fives stirred. “Yessir?” 

Godsdammit, he couldn’t even hold his own head up. Rex shifted so he could better support Fives’ head and neck. All he could do now was pray that someone, anyone, was on their way to rescue them and curse himself for not undergoing any medical training. 

“You stay awake, Fives. Do you understand? I am your superior officer and I am _ordering_ you to stay awake, ARC Trooper, because there is no scenario where you march away here. Do you understand?”

“…yessir.” Fives slurred, making an obvious effort to keep his eyes open. His left eye couldn’t focus at all, but he seemed to be trying to watch Rex with his right. 

“Okay. Good. That’s good. Don’t fall asleep, okay? Fives, can you understand me? Can you do that for me?”

The corner of Fives’ mouth turned up. “…’d do anything f’r you…sir,” he mumbled before promptly proving himself a hypocrite and passing out, leaving Rex frantic and furious that _that bastard_ got the last word in _again_. 

* * *

Rex didn’t really understand how much time had actually passed waiting at Fives’ biobed until Cody and General Kenobi turned up, which forced him and Echo to stand and salute. He almost passed out from the blood rushing to his extremities. Luckily Cody was quick enough to catch him, but Rex knew that meant he was in for a lecture. Cody kept his his arm under Rex’s, supporting him even after Rex tried to shrug him off. 

“He’s awake now, surely there’s no reason to keep vigil any longer?” General Kenobi asked, not-so-subtly giving Rex and Echo’s filthy armor a long look. 

“Sir,” Echo said haltingly, “he’s…in and out. We were just waiting until he was a little more…steady.” Rex couldn’t find it in him to say anything. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, he felt empty and aching. He couldn’t even justify why he was still there instead of finishing - hell, _starting_ \- his casualty reports. 

“I’m steady,” came Fives’ sleepy, drugged voice from the bed. “ ‘m steadier than you. At least I know what I want.”

Echo looked meaningfully at the general. “Like I said, sir.” 

General Kenobi smiled. “Be that as it may, trooper, he’s in good hands and he’s out of the worst of it. I’m sure we can find you quickly if anything changes, but for now you should go get something to eat and rest for a bit.” 

“Food ‘d be good,” Fives mumbled with closed eyes, halfway asleep already. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Echo chuckled, “maybe later. Don’t die while I’m gone, brother.” He turned to leave.

Rex felt like he had to say something. It would be strange to leave without a goodbye of some sort, right? He cleared his throat, Cody still holding him up. “Right. Rest up, trooper,” he managed gruffly. 

“‘kay, Daddy,” Fives said.

Everyone froze. 

Rex felt like the bottom had fallen out of his soul. Cody’s head turned ever so slowly until he was eye to eye with Rex. Or he would be, if Rex could manage to move. Rex was still frozen, staring into the middle distance, unable to breathe. He could feel Cody’s piercing stare on the side of his head. Out of the corner of his eye he could see General Kenobi raise his hand to stroke his beard, which he _knew_ meant he was trying very hard not to laugh. 

“Uh. Uh.” Echo fumbled desperately. “Sirs.” He saluted the room at large and probably broke the record for fastest exit in the history of the GAR. The traitor.

“Sounds like you and I,” Cody stated slowly, calmly, like a predator before it pounced, “need to have a talk, Rex’ika.” 

As soon as he was well enough to spar, Fives was a dead man. 


End file.
